Recovery and Revolution

Recap

   Recall that in yesterday's blog, we discussed the events of 2553-2554 when Bonate renounced the recent Naplian nonaggression pact with the Qomiti. Bonate had done this because he was planning a Ffawe insurrection and believed that the Naplian Empire was near the breaking point. Renewed war with the Qomiti and possibly the Rutak would topple the Onwey government and pave the way for his takeover of the Naplian Empire. Horrified, Onwey officials reasserted Naplia's adherence to the nonaggression treaty. At a secret meeting in 2554, Bonate told his ally Benaltep to expect war with the Qomiti over the Pressak Corridor.

   There followed another twenty years of war with no appreciable advantage to either side, but the Naplian empire was running out of troops and resources to fight the war. In 2574 the Ffawe Naplian forces, now entirely under Bonate's control, revolted and demanded that the Onwe government give way to a new Ffawe controlled administration. Fighting flared between the loyalists and the rebels. The Onwe government sued for peace with the Grand Alliance the following year to keep from collapse.

The Thoumal Corridor

   By 2579 the Ffawe Insurrection had spread across Naplia and spilled over into Audria. In response, the Thoumal Corridor, a strip of Naplian territory along the Dresch and Audrian frontier was occupied by Dresch, Briddarri, and Audrian forces to exact reparations from the Naplians and prevent further Ffawe incursions into Audria. In the Cessallian Starsystem (Dresch Territory) the Briddarri, Dresch, Audrians, Qomiti, Dulte, and Proq signed a treaty formally creating a second "Grand Alliance" for mutual protection.

The Best Laid Plans of Admirals and Generals...

   In 2581 loyalist Naplian admirals and generals held a clandestine and unauthorized meeting in the Hargow Starsystem (Naplia) to lay out a contingency plan for regaining the Thoumal Frontier, the Pressak Corridor, and Ganz, by war if necessary.

   From 2582 through 2585 the former enemies and allies held a dizzying number of treaty conferences. In 2582 Audrian and Qomiti officials met at Blasviss Starsystem (Qomiti Territory) and hammered out an agreement for mutual defense if either empire was attacked by the Rutak or the Naplians. In response Attel, Naplia, and Rutak diplomats signed the Padderoi Starsystem Agreement in Attel, re-establishing diplomatic relations, renouncing all reparations claims against each other and proposing economic cooperation to counter the Blasviss treaty. In the Abrasseto Starsystem (Dulte Kingdom) the 2584 "Border Pact" was signed by Onwe Naplia, the Briddarri, the Dresch, Audria, Attel, Qomiti, and Proq. The empires agreed to mutually guarantee existing borders and to make a peaceful settlement of disputes between them. And in 2585, in the Rutak government starsystem Fwerellia, Naplian, and Rutak emissaries sign the Naveral Treaty which provides that if one of the two is attacked, the other will remain neutral.

Money for War

Bonate was not idle during these years. Even as the Ffawe and Onwe continued to battle, Bonate sent emissaries on a number of diplomatic missions to gain support from sympathetic governments. After years of negotiation, in 2586, Denica agreed to a large loan for the Ffawe rebels giving Bonate the means to prosecute his war.

Next time...Civil War and Prophecy

END TRANSMISSION

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